Poultry lunch-box.



No. 801,197. PATBNTBD DEG. 12, 1905. T. O'BRIEN.

PUULTRY LUNCH B0X.

'f I im@ .Ill

/NVENTOH A TTOHNE VS.

UNITED. sTArns PATENT OFFICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1905.

Application filed March 22, 1904. Serial No. 199.438.

To a/ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS OBRIEN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Branford, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and Improved Poultry Lunch-Box, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention relates to poultry culture; and its object is to provide a new and improved poultry lunch box for containing grit, shells, charcoal, cut clover, and like materials arranged as a self-feeder and constructed to allow the poultry to have ready access to the separated compartments containing tlie different materials Without danger of the poultry causing a mixing of the different materials in the several compartments, thereby avoiding waste of the materials.

The invention consists of novel features and parts and combinations of the same, as will be more fully described hereinafter and then pointed out in the claims.

A practical embodiment of the invention is represented in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this speciiication, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the improvement. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, the cover being removed. Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the improvement on the linelS 3 of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a similar view ofthe same on the line 4 4 of Fig. 2.

The improved poultry lunch-box is in the form of a box proper, A, hung up on the wall in a scratching-shed a suitable distance from the floor, as plainly illustrated in Fig. 1, and the said box A is provided with a sloping cover B, adapted .to beremoved for filling the lunch-box with the desired materials, as hereinafter more fully explained.

The box A is provided with a plurality of transverse partitions C, C', and C2 to form separated compartments D, D', D2, and D3, access to which is had by front openings E a distance above the bottoms of the compartments. The compartment D is adapted to contain cut clover or the like, while the compartment D is charged with bone-meal, the compartment D2 with oyster-shells, and the last compartment D3 is filled with grit. The

compartment D is provided with a feed-rack F, formed of slats, extending upwardly and forwardly from the rear lower end of the compartment to the front thereof, as plainly shown in Fig. 3, to support the cut clover in the upper portion of the compartment and to allow the poultry to have access to the space formed at its lower end with a V-shaped cut G', through which the material can pass into the space in the front portion of the corresponding compartment, and to which portion leads the opening E in the front of the box. N ow the racks G extend upwardly and forwardly from the rear lower end of the compartments D', D2, and D3 the same as the slatted rack F to support the materials in the upper portions of the compartments and to allow the material to feed through the cuts G' into the space in the front lower portions of the compartments, and to which space access is had by the openings E. Inwardly and upwardly Vextending fianges E' form the bottoms of the openings E to prevent the poultry from scattering the feed out of the compartments.

N ow it is evident that the poultry can get a particular material only in the corresponding com artment D, D', D2, or D3, and by having t e partitions C, C', and C2 extending transversely from the front to the rear of the box it is evident that the poultry in poking in the material cannot spill the contents of one compartment into the adjacent compartment and then on the floor, and hence the materials of the dierent compartments are not liable to become mixed. It is understood that if the materials should become mixed the poultry would poke in the co-mpartment containing the mixed materials until it had scattered it'out of the compartment on the floor, and thus wasted nearly all the material not desired in order to nd the material the poultry Vdesired to feed on for the time being.

The middle slats of the rack F are spaced farther apart than the remaining slats to form an opening in the slatted rack F sufliciently large for the poultry to poke the head through the middle slats to allow the poultry to pull down some of the clover supported on the rack in the upper portion of the compartment D.

It is understood that other materials than IOO IIO

those specified may be placed in the several compartments. The racks F and G are removably held in the several compartments, so as to allow convenient cleansing of the several compartments Whenever it is desired to do so.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. A poultry lunch-box, comprising a box having an opening in its front and provided with vertical partitions extending from front to rear and dividing the box into a plurality of compartments, each having a front opening, the openings being above the bottoms of the compartments and having inwardly and upwardly inclined flanges on their bottom walls, and an inclined rack in each compartment for supporting the material in the upper portion thereof the racks having openings and extending from the lower rear sides of the compartments to the fronts of the same above the openings, and forming receptacles in the bottoms of the compartments7 as set forth.

2. A poultry lunch-box, comprising a box having an opening in frontV and provided with vertical partitions dividing the box into a plurality of compartments, each having a front opening, the openings being above the bottoms of the compartments, and an'inclined rack in each compartment for supporting the material in the upper portion thereof, the racks extending from the rear sides of the compartments to the fronts of the same above the openings and forming receptacles in the bottoms of the compartments.

3. A poultry lunch-box comprising a box having a compartment formed with an opening in the front, the bottom wall of the openi 

